New UK offshore wind farm licences are announced

Successful bids for nine new offshore wind farm zone licences within UK waters have been announced.

A consortium including Npower and Norway's Statkraft won the licence for the biggest zone, in Dogger Bank, which could produce nine gigawatts of energy.

Turbines in the nine zones could generate up to 32 gigawatts of power, a quarter of the UK's electricity needs.

The winners have signed exclusive agreements with the Crown Estate, which owns the UK seabed.

'Delighted'

Proposals for the wind farms will now go through planning and consent stages.

It will create one of the biggest infrastructure projects for wind energy in the world, with construction beginning in 2014 at the earliest.

The second largest zone, with a potential yield of 7.2 gigawatts, is at Norfolk Bank. The wind farm licence there has been won by a consortium of Scottish Power Renewables and Sweden's Vattenfall Vindkraft.

Speaking on behalf of the joint venture, Keith Anderson said the companies were "delighted" to have been awarded the development rights.

"It will be a major engineering challenge, but the combined experience of both partners acquired over decades in the energy business will help us deliver a project that will deliver enough green power to meet the equivalent annual electricity demand of more than five million homes in the UK," he said.

New jobs

This is the third time companies have had a chance to bid for zones.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the government's policies to support offshore wind energy had put the UK ahead of other countries.

"This new round of licences provides a substantial new platform for investing in UK industrial capacity," he added.

"The offshore wind industry is at the heart of the UK economy's shift to low carbon and could be worth £75bn and support up to 70,000 jobs by 2020," he said.

However, the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) warned that the UK would only truly benefit if the turbines were manufactured here.

"We need to ensure the UK benefits through a boost in manufacturing, engineering and skills: but this will only happen if additional action is taken by the government through working actively to create coastal manufacturing hubs," said Maria McCaffery, BWEA chief executive.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.